THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA

MAIN POINTS
• A NATION of IMMIGRANTS
 THE ‘AVERAGE AMERICAN’
 THE ‘MELTING POT’
 THE ‘SALAD BOWL’
 THE ‘PIZZA’
• HOW CAN AN AMERICAN BE DEFINED
• U.S.A. – GEOGRAPHICAL PRESENTATION
 STATES
 REGIONS
 TERRITORIES
 A NATION of IMMIGRANTS
• the country was settled, built, and developed
by generations of immigrants and their
children
• today America continues to take in more
immigrants than any other country in the
world →
• the USA – among the most heterogeneous
societies in the world → many different
cultural traditions, ethnic sympathies,
national origins, racial groups, and religious
affiliations
• 94 % of all Americans today were born
in the USA (as compared with only 85 %
in 1910) → the tens of millions of
Americans who proudly acknowledge
their ethnic roots are still ‘more
American’ than they are Irish, Italian,
German, or Puerto Rican
• what they have in common is more
significant than what makes them, as
Americans, different from one another
 THE ‘AVERAGE AMERICAN’
• describing the ‘average American’ – difficult:
 ‘average American’ might be white, but
Americans are not ‘normally’ white
 most Americans are Christians, but America
cannot be called ‘a Christian country’
 a majority of Americans might claim
European ancestry, but this description also
does not define Americans in general
 neither does language define Americans
 THE ‘AVERAGE AMERICAN’
• the USA – one of the few countries with no
‘official’ national language, or languages
• English = the common language by use,
but not the national language by law
 about 30 million Americans speak a
language other than English at home
 a so-called foreign accent does not
necessarily mean that an individual is a
foreigner
o an American in New Mexico speaking
Spanish as his first language could be a
recent immigrant having arrived in the
US only a few years ago
o his grandparents could have arrived in
the US a hundred years ago
o it could also be that his ancestors had
been living in the area years before the
13 British colonies were established on
the East Coast
 THE ‘MELTING POT’
• process of assimilation or
‘Americanization’ has characterized the
immigrant experience in American
history – part of the ‘melting pot’:
many different nationalities and ethnic
groups have largely lost or
intentionally given up many of those
specific markers making them much
different from their neighbors
 THE ‘SALAD BOWL’
• in the process of becoming Americans,
other Americans have maintained much
of their ethnic identities → U.S. society =
a ‘salad bowl’
• these Americans are not any less aware
or proud of their American nationality
Japanese Americans – the most highly
decorated American soldiers fighting in
Europe in World War II
 THE ‘PIZZA’
• ‘pizza’ – metaphor for American
society:
the different ingredients are often
apparent;
they give the whole its particular
taste and flavor;
yet, all are fused together into
something larger and unique.
 THE CONSTANTLY and RAPIDLY
CHANGING FACE of AMERICA
• Hispanics (all Spanish-speaking
Americans: Mexican Americans,
Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc.) =
the largest ‘minority’ in the
United States → the majority of
citizens in a number of cities
 HOW CAN AN AMERICAN BE DEFINED
• an American citizen:
someone who meets the legal requirements
of citizenship and who considers
himself/herself to be an American;
any person born on American soil.
 the older categories of nationality (race,
language, religion and parents’ ancestry)
have become relatively unimportant in
America → used to describe, but not to
define an American
 STATES, REGIONS, DEPENDENCIES
• USA – a federal republic made up of 50 states +
the District of Columbia (the fourth largest
country)
• bordered in the east by the Atlantic Ocean, in the
west by the Pacific Ocean, in the north by Canada
and in the south by Mexico
• 48 states border with at least one other state +
Alaska (near the Arctic Circle) and Hawaii (3,200
km away in the Pacific Ocean)
• the island territories of Puerto Rico and the Virgin
Islands, both located in the Atlantic Ocean
• USA doubled in size with the purchase
of the Louisiana territory from France
in 1803 and Florida from Spain in 1819
• in 1848, Texas, California and New
Mexico, after a brief war with Mexico
• 1812-1852: the population tripled
• in 1867 Alaska was purchased from
Russia
• in 1898 Hawaii was annexed
 THE REGIONS of the USA
• the northeast, the north central region, the Pacific
coast states, the south
 the northeast: 6 states of New England (Maine,
Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island and Connecticut), the Mid-Atlantic states
(New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, New York and
Pennsylvania) and the District of Columbia
 densely populated and among the most heavily
industrialized areas
 New York: 8 million people; 5 borrows (Bronx,
Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island)
• the north central region: the states of the Great
Lakes (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota
and Wisconsin), the states of the Midwest (Iowa,
Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and
North Dakota) and the interior west states of Idaho,
Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming
• Midwest – the breadbasket of America
• in addition to Lake Michigan, the four lakes
bordering with Canada (Lake Superior, Huron, Erie
and Ontario) → half the world’s fresh water
• 3 % of the population
• Detroit, Chicago – the most industrialized cities
• the Pacific coast states: Washington, Oregon,
California, as well as Alaska and Hawaii
• in 1867 Alaska (the largest state in the USA) was
purchased from Russia
• in 1898 Hawaii (a group of 8 main islands) was
annexed
• California – the most densely populated state in
America; a land of immense contrasts
(magnificent beaches and mountain ranges, the
famous canyons and deserts)
• Los Angeles – the largest urban center in the USA
• San Francisco – an important shipping center
• the south: two sub-regions (the Southern States
and the South-western States)
 the Southern States: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida,
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and
West Virginia
 the South-western States (Arizona, New Mexico,
Oklahoma and Texas)
• Texas – major petroleum producer
• Houston – the largest city in the United States
• Dallas – important banking and financial center, as
well as a computer science center
 AMERICAN GOVERNMENT

• in 1776, 13 British colonies in America

came together, stood up and told what
was then the world’s greatest power that
from now on they would be free and
independent states → a bitter 6-year war
followed
• a new republic was founded → Americans
chose their own form of government
• a system of government, in Lincoln’ s
words, “of the people, by the people, for
the people”
• The ultimate power is not given to
the President (the executive
branch), or to the Congress (the
legislative branch), or to the
Supreme Court (the judicial branch).
• Nor does it belong to any political
party, as in many other countries. It
belongs to “We the People”, in fact
and in spirit.